Unfairness lies in treating people in a way that they “do not deserve”. Fairness is an interesting challenge when working in different cultures in that local understandings of fairness differ. Every society has clear notions of what is fair and unfair. Every society has rules and norms that everyone understands as fair (and unfair). Breaking those rules demonstrates disrespect both for people and for their society.

Unfairness through demonstrating Different Value for Different Lives

The dividing mindset does think some people are worth more than others. This attitude is emphasized constantly through preferential treatment of some group or groups over others. The social rules, as well as laws, can also be designed to discriminate against groups.

Interveners can slip into this mindset due to laziness, fear, or organizational policies. Combined with the Distribution Effect, interventions and interveners can be perceived as demonstrating preferential treatment to the group receiving benefits from the intervention.

An organization held a Do No Harm training just out of town. At night, the local staff was dropped off at a bus station to get home, while the international staff were driven directly to their homes. (Needless to say, the next day’s session was quite intense. There was a lot of learning done that day!)

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Related Topics
Organizations and Unfairness
Fairness through Recognizing Value
Organizations and Fairness
Using Fairness